Trust

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When crossing the respondents’ level of attachment with their understanding and knowledge about insurances, some interesting numbers turn out. In order for a customer to feel some sort of attachment to an insurance company, they will need to have some degree of understanding and knowledge. On the other hand, the highest feeling of understanding and knowledge does not necessarily equal a high level of attachment.

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trust with customers and that sometimes the insurance companies forget that they are providing a service in which they need to handle the issues for their customers and not vice versa (Ibid.).

Albeit most of the participants supported the statement around trust having to be generated through positive experiences, one of the participants, Isabella, did not support this opinion specifically and mentions that “I think it’s really important to have trust with them (insurance company), Otherwise I’d change. I don’t think you would need to have a bad or good

experience in order to trust them. If they were proactive and gave me advice on which

insurances I need or don’t need or could give me a better offer on existing insurances I’d feel that they want the best for me and that would help me trust them.” (I. Nagel, Focus group interview, April 16, 2019). As Isabella clearly states, she does not feel like they work in her best interest or at least, she would trust her insurance company more, if they were actively reaching out to her, to ensure that her needs are covered. This is an interesting statement, which infers that trust is generated through interaction, but not necessarily defined by a positive or negative experience, but merely through attention to her needs.

Furthermore, in Isabella’s quote she also mentions the need for proactivity and information.

This point of view was further supported by Joachim, who also felt the need for more contact and that his relationship with the insurance company is distant, whereas he describes the current interaction as; “I would like more personal contact. Right now, they (the insurance company) are just a web page to me and I just pay” (J. Buhl, Focus group interview, April 16, 2019). This perspective presented by Isabella and Joachim suggests, that it is very hard for them as

customers to trust their insurance companies, since there barely are any interactions between them and the insurance company. Without interaction with their customers, it becomes increasingly difficult to generate trust and hereby also difficult to retain customers.

The importance of the personal interaction between the insurance company and the customer were shown with one of the participants, Mustafa. He described his relationship with his insurance company, whereas him and his family were visited often by an insurance agent, who would be interested in knowing whether they felt if their current needs were covered or if they needed anything else (M. Al-janabi, Focus group interview, April 16, 2019). Mustafa also spoke fondly of the relationship between his family and the insurance agent, whereas he stated in regards to his knowledge about his insurances that; “Because it was a person we knew (the insurance agent), I’m very much aware of what we get, which also makes you feel safe, because you sat with him (the insurance agent) and got explained what you got and how you are

covered, which made it really personal, so you trust it a bit more” (M. Al-janabi, Focus group interview, April 16, 2019). Thus, the personal contact between the insurance agent and Mustafa was a vital factor in building trust.

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As mentioned by Ann Lehmann Erichsen, the main purpose of insurance companies is to handle the risk of their customers, hence they are covered in all circumstances of their everyday life (A. L. Erichsen, Personal interview, August 27, 2019). Mustafa shared his opinion on why he also trusts his insurance company, due to his expectancy towards the service he is paying for; “Not to be naive, but I expect them to do what I’ve paid them to do. So, I trust them” (M.

Al-janabi, Focus group interview, April 16, 2019). As Mustafa says, he is trusting towards his insurance company, because he is paying them for a service. Hence, he expects them to deliver on set service. This perspective was supported by Thomas, who similarly felt like he trusted his insurance company to deliver on the information they have provided him with (T. Nissen, Focus group, August 27, 2019). Thus, delivering on expectations is also an important factor in terms of building and sustaining trust.

In the individual rankings of service, two out of the ten participants chose to prioritize the importance of ‘The insurance company’s image’. Generally, the importance of the insurance company’s image was not a subject, which were discussed much, as some participants had other priorities in relation to their insurance company. However, one of those participants, Isabella, elaborated on why she prioritized the insurance company’s image in regard to what could cause her to change insurance company. “Quality of services. Because you often hear bad stories about insurance companies” (I. Nagel, Focus group interview, April 16, 2019). As highlighted by Isabella's opinion, it is important that her insurance company is delivering on the quality of services, in which she expects, as there often circulate bad stories, as also referred to by Lone Eriksen (2019).

Similar for most of the respondents is that they feel like trust is important to them and that it has to be earned. Although they shared different opinions on how trust is generated, most of them do not feel that their current insurance company has made a considerable effort to appear trustworthy or at least need to do more in order to build the necessary trust. One of the reasons to which, the insurance companies fails to accommodate the needs of the respondents, is the general lack of transparency.

Throughout the course of the focus group interview, there was a general consensus about the lack of transparency from the insurance companies and how the respondents perceived their knowledge of their actual coverage. The lack of transparency is stated by Mia, whereas she discloses why she is dissatisfied with her current insurance company; “... Even though I haven’t had the need for them, I feel like there a some things, where it is not transparent enough about what I’m actually paying for and what insurance I actually got in respect to what I want.” (M.

V. Madsen, Focus group interview, April 16, 2019). As Mia states, her discontent stems from a combination of her feeling that the insurance company do not consider her actual needs and lack the knowledge about insurances to dissect the information provided by the insurance

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company. The lack of transparency is entirely clear from Mia’s example and emphasizes the lack of transparency, since she as a customer is unable to uncover the complexity of the product and unaware of how she is actually covered. This sentiment of being unaware of how they are covered by their insurances was recognized by a few of the respondents. Joachim describes in the context of his content with his insurance company; “You don’t really know what is

expected, because you have not had any other insurance company. It is a bit of a fluffy term, because it is first when the injury occurs, you figure out which insurances you actually got and if they actually cover. So sometimes you feel like it is not so transparent.” (J. Buhl, focus group interview, April 16, 2019). As Joachim indicates, there is a clear issue regarding transparency, when he as a customer is unable to clarify how he is covered by his insurances. Since

insurances are designed to work preventive in the case of eventualities per their definition (Den Store Danske, 2010). This is a clear issue, when the customer is unable to tell if the product they are purchasing are working as intended.

The lack of transparency is not only explained by the ability to know how the customers are covered by a given insurance, but also in the language used by insurance companies. Most of the respondents were of the belief that the language used in the insurance industry is very complex and difficult to understand. The language used by the insurance companies were especially highlighted in the context of areas in which insurance companies could improve and how this would keep the respondents at their current insurance company. The importance of the language used by the insurance companies were also exemplified in the collective prioritization of services, whereas ‘consulting about insurances and the language’ was ranked as the second most important of all services in which the respondents would prioritize in choosing an

insurance provider (Appendix AC). One of the respondents, Mads, expressed the importance of the language, hence it should be understandable to him and hereby one of the key components of generating trust to him (M. Hendriksen, focus group interview, April 16, 2019). Another strong advocate of more understandable language was Mia, who stated; “I would like if their language and communication were focused a bit more on us (young consumers).” (M. V.

Madsen, focus group interview, April 16, 2019). Mia went on to further support the argument of lack of transparency regarding the insurance policies, by adding the willingness of reading an updated insurance policy is very low, since she simply does not understand it (Ibid.).

Interestingly, one of the respondents, Thomas, who works with financial services on a daily basis issued that the language can be hard to understand (T. Nissen, Focus group interview, April 16, 2019). Hence, the language appears to be too difficult to understand and impacts the consumers ability to understand the product provided by the insurance companies.

As an experiment, we asked the participants to individually rank nine services of their

importance to the participants, before the interview started and afterwards to collectively agree on a ranking. The lack of transparency was quite apparent from the individual ranking of

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services, as three of the ten participants had ‘explanation about insurances’ as one of their three most important services (Appendix L). Since approximately a third of the participants valued

‘explanation about insurances’ of importance, there is a clear expression amongst the group of a lack of knowledge in general about insurances, as it also became apparent throughout the interview. Moreover, six out of ten participants had ‘consulting about insurances’ as one of their three most important services. The need for consulting about insurances is considered to be what is expected of an insurance company. However, when the actual interview started, the participants also stated the reasoning behind valuing ‘consulting about insurances’, was due to their own knowledge of insurances, and how they actually work, to be insufficient. Hence, they are in need of their insurance company to advise them on which insurances fits their current needs, since they are incapable of knowing themselves.

As previously mentioned, Isabella was concerned about whether or not her insurance company was working in her interest or not. Similarly, two other participants, Mia and Clara shared this opinion.

Collectively, the respondents in the focus group interview displayed a general concern about the lack of transparency from the insurance companies and hereby makes it difficult to generate trust. The respondents shared different opinions on how trust is built with them as a customer, however most of their explanations of how to build trust could be explained through personal interaction as a determining factor. The personal interaction is needed for some of the

respondents to result in a positive experience, although the interaction and service provided is ultimately the most important. Hereby trust was understood as to be earned through interaction between the insurance company and the customer and for this interaction to be in a language, which the customer is able to understand.

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Figure 3: Findings related to trust. Own creation